At Particle Lab, an Awe-Inspiring Glimpse Has Physicists Holding Their Breaths

Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced Wednesday that they have found a suspicious bump in their data that could be evidence of a new elementary particle or even, some say, a new force of nature.

“Nobody knows what this is,” said Christopher Hill, a theorist involved with the powerful particle accelerator at Fermilab. “If it is real, it would be the most significant discovery in physics in half a century.”